Around the Table at Dorje Denma Ling

Following the two days of consultation on the online project for the
Shambhala Archives, on Wednesday, November 15, I drove up to Trident
Mountain House, a farm near Dorje Denma Ling practice center, where I often
come to work on books or for retreat time. From now until Monday, the 20th,
I'll be here in semi-retreat working on a manuscript (seven talks on The
Line of the Trungpas, Karme Choling, 1975) and preparing a syllabus from
videos of a course taught at Naropa in 1974 by Chogyam Trungpa: THE
TIBETAN BUDDHIST PATH. A short but sweet little work retreat. Last night, I
drove over to DDL to present the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project to the
staff and any interested neighboring sangha members. About ten of us
gathering around a table in the dining room, quite a contrast to the big
meetings in Halifax and Boulder. It was mainly the staff, with one
neighbor, Billy McKay, in the mix.Nice to have this small, intimate group.
Acharya Jeremy Hayward introduced me as one of the old old old students of
the Vidyadhara. I felt older on the spot.We chanted the Light of Blessings
and then I briefly introduced the project, encouraging people to read the
description on the CTLP website, as well as the Sakyong's letter. I went
through a list of projects and also paid homage to the other old old old
students in the room. In addition to Jeremy, Director Pat Hayward was there
as well as Jeanne Riordan, who cares for the relics or personal belongings
of the Vidydhara, which we also call the VCTR "Collection". Jeannie had
just arrived to lead a one-month sitting, or dathun, practice. Other staff
were new or newer to me, although I knew Bear Halliday a bit. At the end of
the evening, a young woman named River -- who's on the staff -- came up to
talk about an interest in transcribing. Margaret Longthorp also expressed a
lot of enthusiasm for the project. In the general discussion, a number of
ideas came up, some from me, some from them. We talked about the idea of a
Chogyam Trungpa weekthun or dathun and how this might "play" at Denma Ling.
The staff seemed to like the idea of transcribing programs, combined with
practice and study,and Director Hayward mused about incorporating
transcription into the schedule for DDL during "down times." Do they really
have those? Bear and others were enthusiastic about story telling and
gathering, and the idea came up of inviting Chronicles' director Walter
Fordham to visit and be in residence for a few days, to gather stories
and/or broadcast his Dispatches from Denma Ling. At the end of the evening,
I promised to send pledge cards in the mail -- this was a request -- and a
copy of the Spiritual Materialism DVD just published last month. Jeanne
hopes to show this at the dathun. She is also planning to use an MP3
recordings of talks from CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM (available
from Kalapa Recordings at shambhalashop.com) in the dathun.

Visionaries

Monday, November 13th, fifteen of us gathered in the Snow Lion Room at the Halifax Shambhala Center to discuss the prospects for "onlining" Chogyam Trungpa's teachings and other records related to his life and legacy. Martin Janowitz spoke about the power of the Vidyadhara's household and practice objects, which are stored by the Archives in the hopes of creating both actual and virtual exhibitions. Marty also talked about the power and breadth of the Vidyadhara's world and how to respect and include all aspects, audiences, etc. Howard Harawitz spoke about podcasting and creating radio shows and expressed his appreciation for what the Chronicles of CTR is already doing in this area. Joanne Fordham talked about the power of the Vidyadhara's audio and video teachings, and the possibility of reaching out to people who are not that book oriented but experience the power of the spoken word. Mark Szpakowski talked about the end of personal computers within 10 years and how to have a vision that includes such a future, and other possible futures. Ben Moore and several others talked about the importance of connecting people's personal and practice experiences with their online experience. Larry Mermelstein spoke about the power of using the Vidyadhara's audio/video teachings in practice and study programs. Chris Levy spoke about how the Audio Recovery Project, which is currently digitizing more than 2,000 of the Vidyadhara's dharma talks, was originally conceived as a 20 year project, yet by bringing energy, staff and financial resources to bear on it, we are now completing the project in 3 or 4 years. These are but a few of the remarks our visionary panel offered.

After everyone made some introductory remarks, Alan Schwartz took us through a vision for Onlining the Shambhala Archives and other collections, which he has been thinking about for a long time and recently in quite a lot of depth. His ideas sparked more ideas from those gathered in the room. We talked a lot about atmosphere -- people had been quite moved/affected by visiting the "concrete" first world Shambhala Archives and wondered how we can communicate a sense of sacredness and spaciousness in the online realm.

We spoke at length about a pilot project for the 20th parinirvana year, 2007, to put a fraction of the teachings in the Archives online in a way that would enable all of us to see the possibilities. We also talked about what kind of online collaborations the community could join in. To Wiki or not to Wiki was a major theme. The afternoon session was chaired by Lynn Friedman, who is the director of the feasibility study about the online archives. She both advanced the visionary talk and also brought it into the realm of feasibility, earth. Throughout the day, Amanda Horsman documented the meeting and joined in with her perspective. Sandra Kipis gave us a hospitable environment and spoke to her passion for the photograph collection in the Archives. (She took the photo that appears here.) Gordon Kidd, just back from the onlining Shambhala conference in Boston brought the perspective of the hands-on manager to our meetings, while also sharing his enthusiasm and vision.

On Tuesday, Alan, Lynn and I (joined briefly at the end by Walter Fordham) spent the day talking in greater depth about the feasibility study and the pilot project we'd like to undertake. We hope to establish an online space for the discussion and planning of this project, which should be up within a week at most. I'll post information about that space and how to join it, as soon as details are forthcoming.

We hope to have a project plan and budget ready to post on the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project website by Shambhala Day. At that time, we'd also like to launch the website -- with a logo, improved graphics. Something more than a place where a few documents are posted!!!

I'm off now for a few days of semi-retreat, to work on the manuscript of a small book on THE LINE OF THE TRUNGPAS, which Vajradhatu Publications will publish next year, if the editing is completed. The Nalanda Translation Committee will also contribute to this volume, providing translations of chants to the Vidyadhara and possibly a translation of other Tibetan material on the Trungpa tulkus.

Vision Meeting about the On-Line Archive

This week, the staff of the Shambhala Archives met to discuss the upcoming
meeting, or mini-conference, Monday, November 13th, to envision an on-line
component to the Shambhala Archives. In addition to the Archives staff (Ben
Moore, Departmental Director; Gordon Kidd, Technical Director; Chris Levy,
ARP Technician; and Sandra Kipis, Archives Assistant) we were joined by
Lynn Friedman, a long time programmer, now a Systems Engineer and Manager
who is directing the Feasibility Study of the project; and Amanda Housman,
Young Canada Works student who is assisting with the feasibility study.
Lynn is graciously volunteering her time to head up the study, adding to an
already demanding day job as the managing director of a large project in
Halifax.
We talked about people's expectations, their concerns, the menu for lunch,
and how to make the most of the limited time we will all have together.
Alan Schwartz is coming all the way from California to discuss his vision
and view of implementation for this project. He has an extensive background
in working with systems development and implementation. We will also be
joined by several self-described computer geeks, who have a lifetime of
experience in the computer and online worlds. (I don't have the lingo down,
but just wait until after the meeting and I'll use some impressive cyber
vocabulary on the blog.) Our guests on Monday include Mark Szpakowski, John
Gorman, Howard Harawitz, Martin Janowitz, Larry Mermelstein, and Joanne and
Walter Fordham. It will be quite a full house. Several of those attending
have related projects that would interface with the online Archives. We
also hope that Helen Bonzi, who heads up the Great Transcription Project,
may be joining in.
The day will begin with a tour of the Archives collections and work room.
The Archives currently has a project to digitize more than 2,000 lectures
and other audio "events" recorded by Chogyam Trungpa. Digital libraries of
this material are going to 30 centers both within the Shambhala mandala and
several closely connected groups. Each group is offering financial
assistance to the project. In addition to making material available, the
libraries will become mini-archives in their own right. If we think in
terms of centuries rather than decades, having copies of archival material
in different locations is an important archival strategy. It is a little
bit like creating time capsules all around the world. The ARP digital
libraries will in fact be located on 4 continents.
Next week: a report from the On-Line conference.

Haligonian Legacy

Thanks to Marvin Moore, photographer, I am able to share these images from the reading and book signing at the Lord Nelson on Thursday evening. See the previous blog posting for more information about this event.
Now onto the Legacy meeting:
Last night, Saturday November 4th, approximately 100 community members gathered in the shrineroom at the Halifax Shambhala Centre to discuss the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project. Joining Lady Diana as panelists were Sangyum Wendy Friedman, Wendy Karr, Scott Wellenbach, Ben Moore, and myself. As had been done in Boulder, the meeting opened with the "Light of Blessings" chant to the Vidydadhara, followed by a brief period of sitting meditation. Then Lady Diana read the Sakyong's letter and following her opening remarks and those that I gave (a little lacking in energy), Haligonians came to the mikes. The tenor of the meeting was upbeat, if a bit subdued, with people presenting many intriguing ideas. Carol Johnstone suggested a Rashomon style recording of the varied views of an event in the life of Chogyam Trungpa; Barry Boyce offered to head up a project to match interns with senior students who have various skills and transmissions gained from years of working with Trungpa Rinpoche, so that these can be passed along to another generation. A number of people spoke to the importance of embodying the teachings rather than purely cataloging them (my words). There was some discussion of the project to make teachings of the Vidyadhara available online. A feasibility study is about to begin to investigate the steps involved in accomplishing this. Videographer Sandra Kipis recorded the evening, and copies of the tape are available through the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project or by contacting the Shambhala Archives. Lady Diana leaves Halifax today and the Dragon Thunder tour enters a hiatus, to be continued in 2007. Further reports on the onlining of the Archives will follow, beginning in about a week.

Lord Nelson

Diana Mukpo spoke and read from Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chogyam
Trungpa in the Regency Room of the Lord Nelson Hotel in downtown Halifax on
Thursday evening, November 2nd. The Lord Nelson is the hotel in Halifax
where Chogyam Trungpa stayed in 1977 during his first, exploratory visit to
Nova Scotia, and he gave several public talks in this very room in the 70s
and 80s. It seemed uniquely appropriate for the Canadian launch of Diana's
memoirs. The crowd was slow to assemble, in best Shambhalian fashion, but
by 7:30, when Lady Diana arrived, there were about 200 people there to hear
her read. She chose a black velvet jacket and a filmy black and white skirt
with pointed, elegant heels that I felt should transport you somewhere
special if you clicked them together. Instead of Oz, perhaps Shambhala?
Melvin McLeod introduced Diana, or Mrs. Mukpo as he referred to her
throughout his remarks. Melvin was deeply appreciative, slightly formal,
and to the point, as he spoke about how the student teacher relationship is
always a spiritual love affair, if devotion is genuine. Therefore, how
appropriate to hear about the love affair between Rinpoche and his wife,
also his student. The space in Halifax was relaxed, intimate, personal,
like a family gathering. Diana responded by being relaxed, intimate and
personal in her remarks and in the answers to questions that were quite
direct yet never aggressive. This was the first time I saw her really laugh
during the tour. Following the reading, a line stretched across the room
next door, people waiting to get a book signed in the space we had arranged
for a reception. Diana took a lot of time with each person. At one point,
the staff from Frog Hollow Books, who co-sponsored the event with the
Halifax Shambhala Centre, were discussing how authors generally move
quickly through their signings. One staff member compared Diana to Timothy
Findley, who took his time. Tonight on to another event: the Halifax
consultation on the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project. 7 pm at the Halifax
Shambhala Centre.

In the New York Fashion

Legacy Project Preliminary Gathering in NYC
Written for the CTLP blog by Acharya Judith Lief, who convened the meeting
in New York

On Saturday Oct 28, a preliminary meeting of the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy
Project was held at the New York Shambhala Center in the main shrine
room.. About 20 people attended -- senior students of the Vidyadhara, a
young sangha member, and one of the NY Shambhala Centre directors. We
began with chants and the reading of the Sakyong's letter of support. After
a brief introduction to the project, we had a quite lively and open
discussion -- with both enthusiasm and critical insight, in the New York
fashion. At first, the shrine room was set up as for a program, with a
chair in front and rows of cushions. It soon became apparent that such a
set-up was far to formal, however, so we rearranged in a little clump,
sake was served to all, and we talked informally as old friends and
new. Derek Kolleeny helped to arrange the meeting and Jane took notes. A
few members of this preliminary discussion will focus in the next bit of
time on arranging a larger meeting in January, which we hope will gather
together a diverse group of New Yorkers and further the discussion we just
began.

Dragon Thunder in Halifax

Diana Mukpo arrives in Halifax tomorrow for a reading and book signing at
the Lord Nelson Hotel. She will speak in the Regency Room, where Chogyam
Trungpa gave several public talks in the late 70s and early 1980s. Melvin
McLeod, editor in chief of the Shambhala Sun magazine, will introduce
Diana. After the reading, the cash bar will open and h'ors d'eouvres will
be served. The book event is being co-sponsored by the Halifax Shambhala
Centre and Frog Hollow Books. Tickets are $7 or 2$ with purchase of the
book from Frog Hollow. A full page review of Dragon Thunder: My Life with
Chogyam Trungpa appeared in the Sunday magazine of the Halifax Chronicle
Herald. The reviewer, Stephen Pederson, writes: "Diana Mukpo and Carolyn
Gimian have written a remarkable book in Dragon Thunder. It is dense with
fact and anecdote but entirely readable. And its spirit of commitment to
truth makes it real and direct. It is a fascinating account of a
controversial figure 'who had an amazing way of zeroing in on people's
energy,' as Mukpo said in an interview.Local interest in the book is
building. The Kunchok Foundation, which is rebuilding Rinpoche's monastery
in Tibet, will be selling raffle tickets at the signing, and the winners
will be drawn on Saturday at the Halifax Legacy Project meeting. First
prize is the eight volume Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa. When Diana
arrives in Halifax, she will have a walk through mini-booksigning at the
Relay bookstore at the Halifax International Airport. The store invites
authors to come by and sign copies of their books on their way in or out of
town. The manager told me today that they have five in stock. On Friday,
Lady Diana begins a demanding dressage clinic. More reports to follow!

Carolyn Rose Gimian

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week: teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his
unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
TO SUBSCRIBE visit the website at http://oceanofdharma.com
For the Chogyam Trungpa Legacy Project and the blog of Carolyn Gimian go
to: http://ChogyamTrungpa.com